Cocoa prices pushed to a 14-year high
have pushed cocoa prices to a 14-year high, reports the BBC this
week.
Bad weather and political instability in major producing countries have pushed cocoa prices to a 14-year high, reports the BBC this week.
The cocoa price has risen nearly 70 per cent since September, reaching £1,190 (€1,921) a tonne in London on Friday.
Graham Phillips, a cocoa broker with Sucden in London, told the BBC's World Business Report that political instability over the past two years has affected the crop in the Ivory Coast, one of the world's leading producers.
The report continues by adding that the world's third-biggest cocoa producer, Ghana, has also seen its production fall and traders believe the country may have sold more cocoa than it can actually supply this season.
Ghana is the only substantial cocoa producer that still agrees prices at the beginning of the season. The price farmers will receive for their crop each season - October to March - is arranged by a government board in the summer.
According to the BBC article, this forward selling means farmers in Ghana will not benefit from the current rise in cocoa prices and some farmers have smuggled cocoa over the border to Ivory Coast where prices are linked to the market price.
Graham Phillips believes that if cocoa prices continue to rise, we could soon see this reflected in the price of a bar of chocolate.
"If cocoa kept moving higher and we moved back to the record highs seen in the late 70s early 80s when we were exceeding £2,000 a tonne then ultimately the price would be affected in the street," he told the BBC.
